I know what is good.

Saturday in Saratoga

One of these days I’m going to have a quiet weekend when I can stay in bed until noon and catch up on my sleep. But that’s not in the cards for tomorrow. Tomorrow is going to be epic.

But first a quick follow up to yesterday’s post on Bethlehem’s Restaurant Week. Last night I went to Romo’s as part of Third Thursday Tavern Time, which is a monthly event where a bunch of people from Yelp order a bunch of tavern staples and split the bill.

We got two orders of fried mozzarella, chicken wings, a meat stuffed Chicago style deep dish pie, the famous Gracie’s Sicilian pie, an artisan style pepperoni pie, and two orders of fried dough knots with cannoli cream. Plus we had a few pitches of Flower Power, I wasn’t counting how many, but they kept on coming. There were also some soft drinks involved. Splitting the bill eight ways, after tax and a generous tip the total came to $23 a person.

Even though that’s only $2 less than the Restaurant Week offer, our total included both drinks and gratuity. I’ll add my thought on Romo’s to Yelp soon, but it’s definitely a solid place, and I plan to return.

So let’s talk about Saturday.

For the sake of full disclosure, I’ve been working with America On Tap in my Yelp job, and Yelp is a sponsor of tomorrow’s Brewfest. So I’ll be there early to set up a table with Yelp frisbees. The hope is that people will take advantage of the gorgeous day at the Saratoga Race Course and toss some discs around while they enjoy some great beer.

That’s certainly my plan.

I wanted to sponsor this event, because I loved the idea of getting to hang out at the historic Saratoga Race Course without all of the horse racing. It turns out that I like horse racing, and I enjoy reading through the racing forms trying to figure out which horses will be the likely winners. But my memory of the concession stands was that the beers weren’t all that great. Plus, they were shockingly expensive.

Recently when looking at pictures of people at the Kentucky Derby drinking mint juleps, all I could think about were how expensive and lousy those cocktails must have been. It’s not a hard drink to make, but making it well takes time, care, and attention. And there’s no way anyone can do that in a stadium setting.

But that’s neither here nor there.

The American On Tap events have also gotten more focused on regional beers. And I’m really excited to get to try a bunch of lighter styles from a few of my favorites, like Sloop, Common Roots, Mill House, Paradox, and more.

After the festival, I thought I would probably stick around town, have dinner, and watch a movie. Guardians of the Galaxy 2 is playing downtown, and I thought that might be fun to see on the big screen.

Then I heard that my friend has a small part in a local production of Angels In America, and that’s also playing downtown at 7:30pm on Saturday night. Not only is it $20 to see live theater, but the show runs for three hours with two intermissions, which is a lot of entertainment for the price. Of course, the play is not for everyone. It’s intense. But I can’t wait.

The trick is going to be staying hydrated during the beer festival and to properly caffeinate afterwards. I’m pretty sure that Saratoga Tea and Honey is going to play into my post-beer pre-theater plans, because that should help me caffeinate and hydrate. Plus, I think I remember them having USB ports to plug in phones underneath the tea counter.

Beer. Frisbee. Tea. Culture. Surely there will be some food thrown in there too. But I’m still so full from last night’s feast at Romo’s that I can’t even think about that right now.